Toy Garden

Summary: Margaret isn't very good at growing vegetables in her garden, so instead she plants her old broken toys in there.

Chapter 1

“Time to count my
rosies,

pocket full of
posies,

ashes, ashes,

they all fall down.”

Margaret skipped
through the garden, singing her little tune. She wore a yellow
cotton dress with several small daisies sewn around the neckline. It
was something her mother made for her on her 9th birthday
last year. As she moved through the garden, she dropped flower
petals over her crops. Though her crops were not the usual type you
would expect to see growing in a vegetable garden.

She had on a white
leather belt that looked like it was five times too big for her. Her
little white shoes were torn and tattered and stained red from
playing outside, in the hard Georgia clay. She carried a small denim
satchel with a worn out smiley face on it. She used some mud to fix
his smile, though it looked more like a flat mouth with drooping
eyes. Almost like a face with an expressionless grin.

Margaret was never
very good at keeping her plants alive, and at some point she gave up
on the little garden her daddy laid out for her. Besides, she never
liked to eat her vegetables anyway. Now her garden contained old
toys. A Barbie doll missing an arm and a leg. An old, red, deflated
kickball. Her brother's plastic dump truck that had been mangled and
melted. Her fluffy bunny that had the stuffing beat out of him,
literally.

As the hot sun
blazed down on her garden of toys and clay, she continued to adorn
each piece with a few flower petals until she got to the center of
her garden. This trinket was a bit bigger than most of the others,
and it was covered in a thin, white, mesh veil. Surely, this was the
pride of her garden.

As Margaret
approached her prize, she could see dried out flowers stuck to the
veil. She also noticed fruit flies, house flies, and gnats
surrounding the plaything. But it did not seem to faze her.

When she reached the
centerpiece she just stopped. No more skipping, no more careless
singing. She just stood there silently, staring intently at it.

“Your filth
disgusts me,” she said.

Margaret placed her
satchel on the ground, and with both hands, she lifted the veil off of
the item. The object was old, and a pale gray color, even blue in
some spots. It looked much older than the other toys, and not very
well taken care of. It was hard to distinguish.

About this same time
every day the sun would reach its highest point in the sky and shine
down in a full blaze upon Margaret's garden. The piece was now very
clear, and appeared to be even worse. It looked beaten and bruised,
worn out and exhausted.

Margaret was always
rough with her toys, but this one looked like she'd taken personal
pleasure in destroying it and causing it pain; even after she had put
an end to its existence and stuck it in the garden.

Margaret brushed its
hair back with her hand. She flicked off a cockroach that was
crawling across its nose. The face of this toy seemed to droop, and
it was missing one eye. Margaret watched with wild enthusiasm as the
sun fully covered, and lit up, her prized trophy.

Margaret slowly
stood up and stared down with a maniacal grin on her face. She
cocked her leg back like a punter getting ready to kick a field goal.
With one quick motion she kicked her toy as hard as she could. It
shook and wobbled, but it did not fall over. Margaret had made sure
to plant this particular piece firmly in the ground.

As Margaret turned
and started to walk away, a sinful expression came over her face, and
she let out a little giggle. She stopped and paused for a moment.
She glanced back over her shoulder, to see her centerpiece once more.

“No flowers for
you today. Mother!”

###

Thank you for
reading Toy Garden. This is the first in a series. Look for more of
Margaret's stories on Smashwords and at Barnes & Nobel. Check my profile to connect with me, and get the latest updates.

Write a Review
Did you enjoy my story? Please let me know what you think by leaving a review! Thanks,
WLM77

kbranchflower6:
It was so intricate! I loved it. She knew that what she was doing was stupid and did it anyway. It’s such an out of the norm book and I absolutely loved it! It really showed how we go back to things even if they hurt us. I really hope you will have more books for us to read!

SeanSavage:
Good plot that moves fairly quickly. Time passage somewhat vague. but not indecipherable. Very good syntax, grammar and punctuation. The story flowed very well, however, the breaks between chapters and the time jumps tended to be slightly confusing at first. I could see where the author was going...

Aditya Harikrish:
It had me on tenterhooks since the very first page. Excllently developed plot and characters. You've done an amazing job of building a fantasy world from scratch. Hats off to you!A sequel is a must.

Sammy Styles:
It is one of those stories that keeps you on the hook till the last moment. A roll of pictures were piling up and with continuous moving, it was like I was watching a film. The scenes were dramatic with a bit of every emotion. The story contains every essence of mystery, romance and adventur...

Nishant Jain:
I felt as if i am watching a movie,not reading a book. The story was definitely interesting. It was more of action than horror for me. There are a few grammatical and spelling errors I came across and at times I found it difficult to imagine some things which the author is trying to convey, but o...

Kashaf Azmat:
The concept is excellent everything is well defined that you can picture the whole scenario which makes you feel connected to the plot and this is the thing that catches my eye and this what i am looking for in every novel.Keep it up

Jason Phang:
I'm pretty new to Inkitt (this is only my 4th book) and I must say I've been thoroughly impressed by the quality of the authors here. Remnants of Chaos is an excellently written book that hooks the reader, and doesn't let go. There are some grammatical and typographical errors, but nothing too se...

Deleted User:
What a story. It may be short and small but it is mighty and massive in creativity. However, I did not feel any romance in the story rather than a lot of horror. It was a great read and I cannot wait to see what this author has next on the agenda. Sometimes short stories have the best content and...

iann4701:
I'm no expert but I know when I have read a good book and this was one. From the beginning it had me wondering where it was going next and what the outcome would be. If you fancy a read with a slightly different perspective from the norm then I would certainly give this book a read. I will look o...

danijelstoilkovic:
I really like this story. The characters, the mysteries, that bonding in the end, but I would really like to see what happened next. Is there a second part? And this would really be one cool horror movie and if I was the director, I wouldn't change a thing.It's awesome!

Shelley Miller:
The ideas and the set up and this are amazing! The feel of the story goes from science fiction to horror to suspense all in a big, thrilling ball. I really like your character so far and her powers and the idea of the ark being a person. The world is intense and gritty and clever as well. While a...

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